Very happy to be back in the Independent with a crossword today. I wrote it in 2023, when the world champion at 24ac wasn’t so famous and the brothers in 21dn weren't talking! Devious new clue following edit (9) Harry owes cash for present (8) Free at puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/crypti...

FOR IDRIS ELBA (Palindrome) Able sir, did nobody fit recognise it ties in? Go, certify — do Bond, Idris Elba!

I set today’s Sunday Telegraph prize Toughie www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ "Tangled up in Blue" ultimately discarded by music magazine (8) Character from "Lewis" close to suspect on slope (6)

Bears vs. Trail cameras

Grateful for the qualifying clause after fearing the david was in danger.

Wayne's World, 116 years ago.

Met Office @Mum

Julie Andrews walks into a vegan cafe and orders the Do Re Mi Fa Soy Latte

Go round the outside.

Pandiculate: go get a lucid nap. #palindrome

Bears vs. Trail cameras

I set today's cryptic crossword in the Daily Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ Tout from estate at this event? (3,4,4) Tense question on original TV game show (10) Who's grasping money in film by Stone? (9)

Anyone know whose Times cryptic gets marmelised here? 🙂 www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBrD...

The male Northern Cardinal is a brilliant pop of color on a snowy morning.

Flotsam washed up on the beach at Newport, Pembrokeshire, on Sunday afternoon after a recent storm: goose barnacles attached to a very old bottle. An expensive delicacy in Spanish and Portuguese restaurants. Our hound thinks I'm about to hoy it for her to fetch.

I set the prize Toughie crossword in today’s Sunday Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ Medicine from jar next to blunt needle (5,5,5) A dodgy tip with score at 16:9? (6,5) Brilliant book on Dexter (6)

VOYNICH (Anagrammed Lines) I encrypt much, to vanish into such ivy parchment — in the script many vouch vaunts no mythic cipher: The Voynich Manuscript.

ISSUE 2 PRE-SALES NOW OPEN! £5 plus postage Coming out in JANUARY 2026 unchcrosswords.com

Festive back garden view at dawn this morning in West Wales. (Oak, hawthorn, laurel and buddleia all getting out of hand, shout out to the Green Man.)

I set today's Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ At last Cassandra Trotter is up (5) This out of order, I can't shop? (9) Echo accompanying Rotten and Vicious? Stop playing because of it (7)

Albion Basin, Utah, midnight - From Bill (ridingrobots.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/W2UKFi

Guinness-sponsored rapper dropping truth bombs, MC Whirter. #IsThisAnything

Wow, he looks just like him!

ATLANTIS WISHED (Anagram-Sonnet) Within sad slate, wind halts a site. The island waits, sans tidal white. Awe hits its land— At dawn, this isle tilts wise a hand. It stands awhile. In wash, last tide, the sand it wails. Wan salt, it hides its wit and shale. Its death in laws, it lies and thaws.

Congratulations to Iceland on becoming a woman.

I set today’s Daily Telegraph Toughie crossword www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ Put off hack? (7) Food prepared it’s wiser to keep hot? (5,4)

I wrote a blog post for @mycrossword.co.uk about how setters can identify and calibrate how difficult (or otherwise) their own puzzles are: www.mycrossword.co.uk/blog/the-dif... If you’re a setter, an aspiring setter or just curious as to how these things work - give it 4 minutes of your time! 😊

Are you a massive fan of The Celebrity Traitors looking for your next fix of nail-biting tension and diabolical deception? Well you won't find it in this video solve of one of my Daily Telegraph cryptic crosswords, so I probably shouldn't have mentioned it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHkb...

I set today’s cryptic crossword in the Daily Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ Ready to take someone out? (5,5) Distinctive feature, one on Mars possibly (5,4) Busy flat beginning to trouble female university student (8)

I got there eventually, with one spectacular initial double fail for No.3! Good fun.

Typhoon heading towards Vietnam where many have already died in the past week's floods? Let's go with this thumbnail!

And here’s my latest cartoon for @faroutmagazine.co.uk faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-squire...

I set today’s cryptic crossword in The Independent, free to solve online here: puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/crypti... Heading off, get syrup (3) 'Misty' not covered by chamber musician (7) Wild fellow managed revolutionary sex clubs (7)

I set today’s prize Toughie in the Sunday Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ Uncovered cryptic clue for sailor (5,5) Number, short, sweet and old: 'It's Impossible' (2,3,2)

"Ridin' along in my automobile / My baby beside me at the wheel" It's Chuck's car, but is he driving, or is she? Worth asking the person next to you on the bus, anyway.

LAMENT OF A CARVED WOODEN OWL (Palindrome) Too honed, am I not? I sleep, I do. Owl as a basal wood. I peel, sit on.... I made no hoot.

I set today’s Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ Type of crossword clue designed to be hard, generally (6,3,5) Facing carpeting, as crash-mat might be (3,3,4,4)

I know I posted this on Twitter ages ago, but I came across it again last night and thought some may not have seen it yet. (From the Not the Nine O'Clock News spin-off book, 1980.)

Slobbering maniac starts to chew Unch rabidly (3)

Oh God, I think I'm at the wrong event.

I set today’s Telegraph cryptic: www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ Device that picks up plate after you’ve stepped on it? (5,6) I can have Top Gear suspended (8)

I set today’s prize Toughie in the Sunday Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ Single mum ran into bar upset with me (2,10,3) Contemptible person taking in adult now and then, right? (8)

I set today's Telegraph cryptic www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/ First tough problem, zero Fahrenheit inside immersion heater (7,2,4) Gather leaves together with me (5,4)

In case any cruciverbaliserators here haven't seen the 2008 BBC Timeshift documentary on cryptics, it's here on Vimeo: vimeo.com/297517318

A RECIPE FOR EVIL (Palindrome) Evil: Oats. Apple. Kiwi. Kelp. Pasta. Olive.